QLD Raise Fines by 33%.......

[DJR-351]

Courier Mail

By Steven Wardill
November 10, 2008 11:00pm

QUEENSLAND offenders will pay for their sins as they are hit with an across-the-board hike of one-third on all fines levied by the State Government.

From January 1, fines for all offences - including traffic, boating, littering and smoking - will be increased, increasing Government revenue by an estimated $70 million a year.

The Government also plans to regularly increase fines, insisting the amounts are not hurting people in the hip pocket as much as they should in order to act as a deterrent.

The controversial move will cause outrage at a time when Queenslanders are suffering because of the world financial crisis and is certain to prompt allegations of blatant revenue raising.

Fines will be increased by raising the cost of a single penalty unit from $75 to $100 in the Penalties and Sentences Act.

For example, this means a fine for using a mobile phone while driving, which attracts three penalty units, will increase from $225 to $300.

It is the first time since 1999 that the basic penalty unit cost has been lifted.

However, the size of many fines, particularly for traffic offences, have been increased over the past nine years by raising the number of penalty units they attract.

Premier Anna Bligh last night told The Courier-Mail that fines were meant to change people's behaviour, particularly in relation to traffic offences, which could cost lives.

"Queensland has the lowest fine penalty (unit) rate in the country," Ms Bligh said.

"There is no reason why people who break the law here should get away with it cheaper. The value of the penalty needs to be increased from time to time to ensure that it has an impact on people's hip pockets.

"Nine years without an increase is too long. We have let it slip and we will be looking at more regular reviews, likely every three years."

Ms Bligh denied the fine increase was in response to falling revenue, after the global financial crisis wiped at least $700 million from the Government's coffers this year.

"This is not a tax, speeding is not compulsory," she said.

However, the Government has already calculated that it will make $70 million a year from the change but has promised to spend the majority of the funds on road safety.

Some of the target areas include:


Improved speed management and an additional 106 traffic police.

New hand-held laser speed detection devices, mobile radar speed detection devices and speed cameras.

New police motorcycles.

Improvements to black spots on the state-controlled roads.

Ms Bligh said she hoped the increase in fines for traffic offences would help to make speeding and other dangerous actions on the road as unacceptable as drink-driving.

"We have succeed in making drink-driving socially unacceptable," she said.

"We need to do the same with speeding.

"This package of measures is about getting tougher on people who are not listening.

"They are a risk to themselves and others on the road."

The Government will decrease the number of penalty units in some areas, such as interstate trucking laws, to retain national consistency.
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Not a bad pay rise at all, this is not blatant revenue raising at all, this is for your own good...................